Abstract:
The Persian Gulf has an outstanding place in global geopolitics and is regarded as the most important source of consumed oil and natural gas on a global scale. Until today, the marine borders of Iran with the three countries of Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are undetermined. This has resulted in procrastination of materialization of the economic potentials and non-extraction of hydrocarbon resources from the four countries continental shelf resources and their exposure to political tensions. The aim of this study is to explain the most important legal challenge facing the Persian Gulf continental shelf and the role played by the political and territorial disagreements in hindering the establishment of the outer limits of this continental shelf. The primary question is: what are the main factors contributing to indetermination of the continental shelf borders between Iran and the three countries of Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab emirates? The methodology is descriptive and analytical using internet and archival resources. We concluded that the continental shelf legal system prescribes the bisecting line to determine the boundaries and in case of its non-viability common exploitation is advised. In case of the Iranian continental shelf, the geopolitical differences as well as tense political history of relations between Iran and the three states of Kuwait, Iraq and UAE has postponed the determination outer lines. This is in part a consequence of the failure to agree on the borders’ base lines by the four countries which is in turn a political rather than legal issue. The time period that the research covers is from the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 until 2017.
Machine summary:
"Figure 5: The Ex-neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, its Border Lines Were Drawn in 2000 (view the image of this page) (Source: Iranian National Geographical Organization, in Nami 2007: 59) Iran–Kuwait negotiations to determine the continental shelf borders traces back to the beginning of the 1960s when the Iranian national oil company issued its declaration on marine oil explorations.
(view the image of this page) (Source: Iranian National Geographical Organization, in Nami 2007: 73) If the two countries accept each other’s alleged baselines, the beginning of the borderline will be proximal to the Kuwaiti-Saudi sea borderline in the split area that was previously neutral between the coordinates of 28 41 49 of the northern latitude, 48 41 18 eastern longitude, 28 56 06 northern latitude and 492642 eastern longitude (figure 9).
Figure 13: The borderlines of the Three Countries of Iran, Iraq and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf (view the image of this page) (Source: IBRU: Centre for Borders Research - Durham University, at: https://www.
The most important techno-political reasons that the borders have remained indeterminist are: the anti-Iranian atmosphere in the Arab countries in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, non-recognition of the baselines set out by each country, the disagreements over the Arash gas field, doubts about Iraq’s commitment to 687 resolution and its consequences, non-recognition of the 2000 agreement between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the ex- neutral zone by Iran."